JavaFX TextArea gets carriage position from coordinates

Question

Is it possible to get the caret position (a int ) in the screen coordinate (2 double ) in JavaFX TextArea ?

Answer 1

You can use the getInsertionPoint method for TextAreaSkin in your drag and drop handler:

 TextAreaSkin skin = (TextAreaSkin) target.getSkin(); int insertionPoint = skin.getInsertionPoint(event.getX(), event.getY()); target.positionCaret( insertionPoint); 

However, the skin class is in com.sun.javafx. *, so with the release of Java 9, you probably have to do otherwise. No one knows what they will break or what they provide as a replacement. However, it works with Java 8 (for now).

A complete example where you can drag and drop tag text to any position in TextArea:

 import javafx.application.Application; import javafx.event.EventHandler; import javafx.geometry.Insets; import javafx.scene.Scene; import javafx.scene.control.Label; import javafx.scene.control.TextArea; import javafx.scene.input.ClipboardContent; import javafx.scene.input.DragEvent; import javafx.scene.input.Dragboard; import javafx.scene.input.MouseEvent; import javafx.scene.input.TransferMode; import javafx.scene.layout.HBox; import javafx.scene.paint.Color; import javafx.stage.Stage; import com.sun.javafx.scene.control.skin.TextAreaSkin; // Parts of this drag/drop example are from https://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/drag_drop/HelloDragAndDrop.java.html public class TextAreaDemo extends Application { public static void main(String[] args) { Application.launch(args); } @Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) { Label source = new Label( "Draggable Text"); TextArea target = new TextArea(); target.setPrefRowCount(10); target.setPrefColumnCount(100); target.setWrapText(true); target.setPrefWidth(150); String cssDefault = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, et bonorum pertinacia est, verear temporibus definitionem nam an, ius cu justo legimus philosophia. Adversarium complectitur at sit, his ex sumo nibh consequuntur. Et vim adhuc mnesarchum, eum in ignota integre tincidunt. Erant oblique alterum no eos."; target.setText(cssDefault); HBox root = new HBox(); root.setSpacing(10); HBox.setMargin(source, new Insets(10,10,10,10)); HBox.setMargin(target, new Insets(10,10,10,10)); root.getChildren().addAll( source, target); Scene scene = new Scene(root, 600, 330, Color.WHITE); primaryStage.setScene(scene); primaryStage.show(); source.setOnDragDetected(new EventHandler <MouseEvent>() { public void handle(MouseEvent event) { /* allow any transfer mode */ Dragboard db = source.startDragAndDrop(TransferMode.ANY); /* put a string on dragboard */ ClipboardContent content = new ClipboardContent(); content.putString(source.getText()); db.setContent(content); event.consume(); } }); target.setOnDragOver(new EventHandler <DragEvent>() { public void handle(DragEvent event) { /* accept it only if it is not dragged from the same node * and if it has a string data */ if (event.getGestureSource() != target && event.getDragboard().hasString()) { /* allow for both copying and moving, whatever user chooses */ event.acceptTransferModes(TransferMode.COPY_OR_MOVE); // position caret at drag coordinates TextAreaSkin skin = (TextAreaSkin) target.getSkin(); int insertionPoint = skin.getInsertionPoint(event.getX(), event.getY()); target.positionCaret( insertionPoint); } event.consume(); } }); target.setOnDragDropped(new EventHandler <DragEvent>() { public void handle(DragEvent event) { /* if there is a string data on dragboard, read it and use it */ Dragboard db = event.getDragboard(); boolean success = false; if (db.hasString()) { target.insertText( target.getCaretPosition(), db.getString()); success = true; } /* let the source know whether the string was successfully * transferred and used */ event.setDropCompleted(success); event.consume(); } }); } } 

Answer 2

 import com.sun.javafx.scene.control.skin.TextAreaSkin; import com.sun.javafx.scene.text.HitInfo; /****************************************************/ TextAreaSkin skin = (TextAreaSkin) target.getSkin(); HitInfo mouseHit = skin.getIndex(e.getX(), e.getY()); // Now you can position caret skin.positionCaret(mouseHit, false, false); // And/or get insertion index int insertionPoint = mouseHit.getInsertionIndex(); 

For TextArea this method is equivalent to Rolands answer. The practical difference of this method is its applicability to TextField (another subclass of TextInputControl ):

 TextFieldSkin skin = (TextFieldSkin) target.getSkin(); HitInfo mouseHit = skin.getIndex(e.getX(), e.getY()); skin.positionCaret(mouseHit, false); int insertionPoint = mouseHit.getInsertionIndex(); 

Unfortunately, TextFieldSkin does not override getInsertionPoint(...) , and the parent implementation returns 0, so an alternative solution does not work here.

As for Java 9, both Rolands and my answers will still work. The packages com.sun.javafx.scene.control.skin and com.sun.javafx.scene.text (where the HitInfo class is located) are moved to the Java 9 open API. Their locations will be javafx.scene.control.skin and javafx.scene.text , respectively. See Javadocs for JavaFX 9 here: http://download.java.net/java/jdk9/jfxdocs/index.html

Answer 3

To always see the cursor, put this in setOnDragOver -Methode

 target.requestFocus();